As kids, Valentine’s Day was all about sending out the funniest cards to your best friends or maybe receiving a carnation from a secret admirer, but this friendship-filled holiday can easily be turned into a celebration of reading for the younger set.

“Valentine’s Day and reading might not be an obvious connection, but tailoring a child’s reading to the big events that are already occurring in their lives is one of most effective and fun ways to increase their enthusiasm about literacy,” said Erin Jackman, Director of the Brooke Jackman Foundation. “For Valentine’s Day, tap into children’s eagerness to swap heart-shaped cards with their classmates by introducing them to a book based on the holiday.”

The Brooke Jackman Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes literacy for at-risk children in the greater New York area. Since its inception in 2001, it has donated over 100,000 books to the children through the Foundation and has established four libraries throughout the city, as well as numerous after-school and family literacy programs.

Just what are some of the best books to get children clamoring to read on this amorous holiday? Spanning from the silly to the sentimental, below are the Top 10 Valentine’s Day Children Books selected by the Brooke Jackman Foundation:

• Guess How Much I love You   by Sam McBratney
• I Love You Through and Through   by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak
• How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?   by Jane Yolen
• Porcupining A Prickly Love Story   by Lisa Wheeler
• Love, Ruby Valentine   by Laurie B Friedman
• Where’s My Valentine? (Yo Gabba Gabba! Series)   by Tina Gallo
• A Giant Crush   by Gennifer Choldenko
• The Ballad of Valentine   by Alison Jackson
• Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink   by Diane deGroat
• Olive You!: And Other Valentine Knock-Knock Jokes You'll A-Door   by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg